As Slobodan Milošević’s minister of information, Aleksandar Vučić personally persecuted journalist and publisher Slavko Ćuruvija (killed on April 11, 1999, in front of his home in Belgrade – ed. note) and imposed draconian penalties on his newspaper. It remains unknown whether, beyond the media, propaganda and political persecution, Vučić played any other role in Ćuruvija’s suffering. An answer to that question could come only after the fall of his regime. As long as Vučić remains in power, the situation is what it is: no one has been held accountable for the murder of the owner of Dnevni Telegraf and the weekly Evropljanin, Slavko Ćuruvija.
This was stated to the Bosnian outlet Vijesti by Aleksandar Olenik, deputy chairman of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and a lawyer, BGNES reported.
Olenik said that, in terms of freedom of speech, Serbia today is in the same position as when Vučić served as information minister, when court rulings were issued in less than 24 hours and decisions were made to persecute, punish and plunder the property of independent media. “Today we are witnessing the quiet shutdown of the N1 and Nova S television channels, which Vučić, with the help of state funds and Telekom Srbija, is persistently trying to take over. Only if and when he does this officially will conditions be created to call snap parliamentary elections. As long as there is even some form of free voting, there will be no early elections,” he added.
Asked what Vučić’s regime is trying to conceal, Olenik replied: “Everything. For thirteen years, Vučić has ruled with the help of a propaganda machine he fully controls. Now he has added force to propaganda, so beatings, detentions and arrests of political opponents over the past year have turned into open state terrorism. Thirteen years ago, Vučić came to power promising a fight against corruption and Serbia’s path toward the EU. His first major lie involved Miroslav Mišković, whom he arrested in 2012. We lawyers knew there was nothing to it and that Vučić had no evidence that Mišković had committed any crime. After a court process lasting nearly a decade, Mišković was acquitted. Meanwhile, Serbian citizens are paying millions in compensation for Vučić’s fake anti-corruption campaign, which quickly turned into its opposite. The collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station last year was tragic proof of massive corruption.”
According to Olenik, “Serbia’s European path is yet another big lie.” Vučić, he said, was and remains a radical who has destroyed any hope of EU membership for Serbia. “Where is Serbia today? Isolated, far from the EU. After thirteen years, we are back at the beginning: corruption is the tool through which Vučić governs, and Serbia, instead of following the European path, is turning toward China and Russia. That is what Vučić is trying to hide. Taking over Nova S and N1 is also necessary to conceal the student and civic uprising in Serbia, which would not have been so successful without free media. Social networks matter, but mobilising citizens would not be possible without at least partially objective media. The condition for suppressing the revolt is the establishment of a total media blackout in Serbia,” Olenik stressed.
He is convinced that the uprising against Vučić’s regime is succeeding. “Whether an anti-government protest is larger or smaller at a given moment is one thing. The other is public support for the student movement and the determination to vote for a student list. Over the past twelve months, all public opinion polls show steady growth in student support. When asked whether they support the students and their list – in other words, whether they oppose Vučić – more than 50 percent of Serbian citizens respond positively. That share is growing, while support for Vučić continues to decline. Polls show he is currently backed by around 30 percent of citizens, with a downward trend. Having studied the mechanics of governance and propaganda manipulation, Vučić knows he cannot stop the fall in his ratings without shutting down the few remaining free media. Attacks against them intensified after official Belgrade hardened its rhetoric toward the EU and the United States. The day after the U.S. intervention in Venezuela, President Vučić convened the National Security Council. Why? How did ‘Trump the Serb’ turn into ‘Trump the fascist’?” Olenik asked.
He noted that during a press conference lasting an hour and a half after the council meeting, Vučić attacked the United States and Donald Trump more openly than ever before. “He had never done that until now. On the contrary, for thirteen years he avoided conflict with the EU, especially with the U.S., and tried to please them in every way, often excessively. A clear example is the scandal involving the former General Staff building, which evidently cost him dearly. Not to mention how much it cost Serbia when he was nearly arrested in Florida for attempting to illegally enter a Republican Party event. Just a year ago, Serbian state-controlled media congratulated the U.S. president on his victory with rented billboards, calling him a Serb. Now, following the president of Serbia, who acts as a mouthpiece for Russia and China, they are running a counter-campaign. Why did Vučić convene the National Security Council? Why does he call the U.S. president an imperialist who violates international law? Such behaviour is politically unreasonable and irrational. I believe Vučić is afraid,” Olenik said.
He explained that Vučić governs like Nicolás Maduro: stealing elections, engaging in corruption, suffocating free media and applying state terror. “His ‘thugs’ resemble Maduro’s colectivos, which ultimately failed to save the Venezuelan president. Fearing for his political future, Vučić is dragging Serbian society and the state into conflict with America and slowly returning to the position of radical leader Vojislav Šešelj, from where he began.”
Asked why Vučić is once again threatening the region, Olenik said that, like any right-wing radical nationalist, he invents internal and external enemies to mobilise what remains of his supporters. “At the same time, he frightens Serbian citizens with these lies: all evil neighbours are against you, and I am the only one who can protect you. He spoke in that vein this week in Trebinje, in a rather crude and vulgar manner. He presents himself as both victim and defender. It sounds insane, yet unfortunately there are still people in Serbia who believe these lies.”
In Olenik’s view, Serbia is not threatened either from within or from outside. There is no “colour revolution” internally, nor is anyone preparing a military attack from abroad. “That means there is no reason for Serbia to invest vast sums in problematic military technologies from the East or to reintroduce compulsory military service. Although such announcements have periodically been made since the Serbian Radical Party came to power, I do not believe they will succeed. It is simply too costly. Even if implemented, the impact would be limited. The regime’s priority is to siphon budget funds into its own pockets. Compulsory military service brings little benefit, as those conscripted could hardly be ‘integrated’ there. The same applies to purchasing outdated military equipment from Russia and China, where it is well known who buys, who sells and who pockets commissions from major arms deals. Ultimately, the question is how many young men would even agree to be mobilised in this way.”
Olenik also said that former Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik has “climbed back into the American tank.” Dodik, he argued, delivered a serious political blow to Vučić by striking a deal – the details of which remain unknown – with the administration of Donald Trump to be removed from the U.S. sanctions list. “That means Vučić is no longer able to destabilise Bosnia and Herzegovina through Dodik as he once did. Dodik negotiated for himself, while Vučić was accustomed to trading on the claim that he is the ‘guarantor of peace and stability’, that everything depends on him. Dodik did what Vučić had planned: he reached an agreement with the Americans behind his back and took away Vučić’s key bargaining chip with the West – offering Dodik’s skin in exchange. At the same time, Dodik’s rhetoric today is noticeably calmer and closer to that with which he originally came to power – for example, his views on the Srebrenica genocide – than it was a year ago,” Olenik said.
He added that the only countries Vučić could still attempt to destabilise are Montenegro and his allies in Podgorica. “He tried in Banjska in Kosovo, and we know how that ended. Strength toward neighbours is drawn from political strength at home, and Vučić has never been weaker there. Support keeps shrinking, even though he still controls much of the state administration and the levers of power. There are cracks in the education sector, particularly higher education, and isolated pockets within the judiciary, but most state and social power remains under his control. That contradiction makes him extremely nervous: he holds power, yet political support is eroding. He knows he can no longer use those levers as before. This frustration is evident in the open state terrorism he is carrying out.”
Survivors of Maduro’s regime, Olenik noted, have testified that in Venezuela people were jailed for social media posts. “Similar repression is now happening in Serbia. Abuse of the judiciary most often runs through the Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, which initiates investigations against students and political opponents. Instead of strength, the regime is showing desperation and justified fear. Real power – money flows, crime, corruption, control of justice – is useless if you know citizens no longer support you. That is why there are no elections, and why, I fear, the government of Đura Mazut will be the only one to complete a full term over the past thirteen years,” Olenik concluded. | BGNES